Optimizing Your YouTube Music Video

optimizing youtube videos

Videos are one of the best ways to get your music heard by both new fans and current fans. Whether it’s an official music video, a lyric video, concert video, or cover song video, it’s critical for you to be on YouTube and creating content.  YouTube is such a powerful tool for any SEO strategy. Since Google owns it, videos can also rank in Google search results; therefore, just like your website, there are many tactics to get your video more views.

I’ve created this quick guide to help you get more views on YouTube so you can start reaching more fans and getting your music heard. It’s not as hard as you may think.

Optimize Your Video File Name

The optimization process for your YouTube music videos starts well before you even upload the video to YouTube. There are many file properties that you can alter that will provide your video SEO benefits. The most important of these properties is the file name of the video.

As opposed to just leaving the file name as the default, you should change that to include a keyword that you are looking to be found for (like the name of the song, music genre, etc.). For example, if you are uploading a cover version of Keith Urban’s Blue Ain’t Your Color (great song, by the way), your file name could look something like: “keith-urban-cover-blue-aint-your-color.mp4”. Note – your file name should include no spaces, with each word separated by a dash.

You’re now ready to upload the video to your YouTube channel.

Optimize The Title and Description of Your YouTube Video

After your video is uploaded, but before it’s published, you’re going to want to change the title and the description of your video. This is one of the places YouTube uses to determine what your video is about.

Similar to the file name, you’re going to want to ensure the video’s title includes keywords you want to be found for, with the most important ones towards the beginning of the title. Using the same example as above, your title could be something along the lines of: “Blue Ain’t Your Color Cover – Keith Urban”. Add your name at the end if it makes sense, or if the title isn’t too long.

The description of your video should be at least 200 words. The first line should also include some keywords similar to the title and file name. The rest should also include keywords that you want to be found for. The most important thing to remember in the description section is to make sure it reads in full sentences and is relevant to what the video is about. You should also include a link back to your website. If you’re making the audio available for sale, be sure to include the links in the description (and make sure you have the rights to sell it).

Adding Tags to Your YouTube Videos

While uploading your music video to YouTube, you should also include as many keywords in the “tags” section as you can that are relevant to both you and your video. Some examples could be the genre you work in, the song name you’re uploading, the artist you’re covering, your name, your channel name, your geographic location, any music related keywords, artists and musicians you’re similar to, etc. These will help YouTube decide what to show in the “recommended“ section.

Adding Annotations and Cards to Your YouTube Video

By adding annotations and cards to your music video will provide more keywords for YouTube to pick up on and determine what your video is about. It also provides a backlink back to your website – which will never hurt your SEO efforts. Typically, people place these annotations and cards at the beginning of the video, and then another one towards the end. It doesn’t really matter where they go in terms of optimization, so place them wherever you prefer.

As with any SEO tactics, the results will not be instantaneous, but could take a bit to make its way up the search results in YouTube, and to be indexed by Google’s search results. But let me tell you, once it starts ranking in the Google search results, you will begin to see the views start to increase.

But that’s not all! There are so many more ways to optimize your video to get more views. I can help you with that, just reach out and I’ll be happy to give you the secrets.


Song of the Day

I’m all about sharing new music that inspires me, or helps me get through the workday. That’s why each blog post includes a song that I’m really into right now, in the hopes that it may do the same for you.

 

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